


If Love Is What You Need (A Soldier I Will Be)

by DollyPop



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Developing Relationship, F/M, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 09:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8395783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DollyPop/pseuds/DollyPop
Summary: “Listen to me,” Marie said, poking her finger against Stein’s chest, right where his heart was. “I may not be a genius, but I’m still pretty smart, alright? And I know that in here,” she tapped at his chest, “you don’t want to hurt me. So I won’t let anyone hurt you, either. Ever.”





	

> _“For what it’s worth: you’re my warrior and I’m your worrier. Do not be confused by the murderers._  
>  Goodness is bigger than us.”   
> ~Outlandish
> 
> * * *
> 
>  

“Now, do you mind telling me again what you called him!” she yelled, her fists shaking, knuckles already starting to sting with the force of the impact. The boy in front of her, taller than her by at least a foot and a half, had crumpled down to the ground in a miserable whimper, both his hands on his bleeding nose.

He looked up at her from his spot in the dirt, his eyes hateful. “Fuck you,” he managed, sounding muffled due to his injury. “You’re a freak just like he i- AH!” he yelped as Marie took two steps forward and hauled him up by the front of his shirt, her feet settling wide apart so she could have more leverage as she threw one of her arms back to hit him once more.

“Don’t you _ever_ call him that _ever_  again!” Marie said, her twin braids bobbing slightly as she all but growled at the boy. Some third year, if she had to guess. Frankly, she’d lost count. So many people were against her meister that it had become commonplace for her to hit first and worry later. If she was going to get in trouble, _again_ , at the very least, it was by defending Stein.

“Or what?” he spat. “You’ll hit me?”

“Yeah!” she said, petulantly. “And then I’ll hit you some more, asshole-“

“Try it, half pint! You and your creepy freak of a-“

Marie swung forward, her first landing solidly against his cheek, her skin protesting. Times like then made her wish that she didn’t have a rule against wearing rings until she was married, but it was no matter. She could do just enough damage regardless.

And there was something about being in that moment, when an enemy had appeared and threatened her Meister, the person she cared for, that she couldn’t really _stop_ hitting him. Because she was so tired. She knew, when she accepted the proposal from Lord Death to be Stein’s new weapon, that it wouldn’t be easy. After what he did to Spirit, people were constantly wary. But they’d gotten closer than she could have predicted and she was tired of having to tolerate the hatred and aggression people at the school had for him. She was so damn  _tired_.

And, of course, because she was so focused on how her fist kept connecting with the boy’s face, she didn’t hear the sharp rustling of footsteps that indicated that someone was coming until-

“Marie Mjolnir!” a sharp, stern voice came from the side. “You let that boy down immediately! Do you hear me? Immediately! Any fight must be supervised by a profess- Marie!”

Marie shook, breathing hard as she finally let go of the random boy in her grasp, letting him fall back heavily. From the looks of things, his eye was already blackening, nose out of place. Her professor rushed forward, Miss Morningstar, from an old weapon family just like Marie was, to inspect the boy, concerned.

“Kris? Could you go to the nurse, okay? Can you make it alright?”

Marie’d folded her arms under her bust and looked over to the side, so she didn’t catch anything that the boy said, but by the time she heard the rustling that indicated that her teacher was approaching her, he was gone.

“Marie!” the woman said, whirling around and looking livid. “What has gotten _into_ you? Did he touch you inappropriately?”

Marie looked down. “No.”

“Did he initiate the fight?”

“No…”

“So why, Marie Eva Mjolnir, did you fight him so badly that he has a particularly smashed nose!?”

“Because!” Marie squeaked, looking up at her teacher with something open and earnest and passionate in her eyes. “He insulted Stein! He called him a freak!”

Miss Morningstar’s frustrated amounted into little more than a sigh as she shook her head. “That’s the same reason you gave last time.”

“It was true, then, too!”

“I imagine it was. But,” she pinched her nose. “You realize I have to give you detention once more, yes?”

“I don’t care about detention,” she lied, scuffling her shoes in the dirt, and Miss Morningstar’s lips pinched at the edges.

“I knew he would influence you, but I had no idea it would be so negatively. We had hoped that he’d take on more of _your_ influence, not the other way around.”

There wasn’t even a question of who _he_ was.

“He isn’t influencing me!” Marie defended, her voice pitching up high.

“Oh? So he wasn’t the one to beat students up for fun?”

Marie’s expression was hurt. “I’m not hurting them for _fun_. I…I don’t _like_ fighting.”

“Then you don’t have to, Marie.”

“You don’t understand!” Marie implored, looking at her teacher. She was fifteen years and four feet five inches of solid, unyielding stubbornness. “They start it! They’re mean to him first!”

“I would imagine Stein would deal with them were he so inclined,” her teacher explained patiently, but Marie shook her head, her hair a mess.

“No, he wouldn’t! You guys act like you know him but he’s _my_ meister! He…he believes them…”

“Believes them when they say _what_?”

“That’s he’s a…a freak,” she muttered, averting her eyes. “That’s he’s dangerous or…or crazy or he’ll hurt me like he hurt Spirit.”

“Marie…those are very real fears the students have…after what happened-“

“He won’t do that to me!” Marie said, all but pleading for her professor to see reason. “He’s good! I know he is!”

“I believe in Stein as much as you do.. But you must be realistic. Doing this…fighting other students…it’ll just make them think _you’re_ just as dangerous as he is.”

Marie looked at her for a long while, her mouth scrunched. “Why is that a bad thing?” she asked, and Miss Morningstar felt something inside of her crumble. Marie had always been so genuinely kind and good and reliably sweet. To hear that she was beating up students, that she was doing it because of her newly assigned Meister…she’d have to have a talk with Death. Separate them, perhaps. It was because she was _too_ good. Internalized her Meister’s struggles, wanted to support him in it all. And that was fine for most pairs: encouraged, even. But for this particular one…it would be prudent to break them apart.

Even _if_ she was his only hope at staying with the Academy. That was the case they’d worked out, the plea bargain. Stein was too strong, and too smart, to be left on his own. Without someone there to ground him, he’d fly loose. Become just as dangerous, if not more, than a kishin.

They’d gotten heat for allowing him to stay without much penalty at all. She knew Kamiko Mori was furious at her and all the staff, since she was dating Spirit, the two of them gathering souls at a remarkable rate, and Spirit had been so terrible slighted by Stein. To think…cut open for five years. And Stein had no remorse, either.

Of course she’d been wary about settling Stein with Marie after that result. She wasn’t the only one, but Lord Death was adamant. The reasoning was sound, but the consequences. . .

This, however, was one she couldn’t have imagined. That Marie would become _so_ attached to the boy…

Yes, a talk with Death was in order. But, for the time being, she only shook her head. “I need to get you to the office to have your hand checked out, and fill out your detention slip. Okay?”

Marie nodded, but she was standing up tall.

Miss Morningstar thought she looked as though she’d done nothing wrong.

In a way, really, she wondered if she did. After all, isn’t that what they’d all _taught_  her to do, in the first place?

* * *

By the time Marie came home, Stein was tinkering with something in the living room and she was tired and her hair and makeup was absolutely wrecked.

“Hey…” she called out, quietly, intending to act as though nothing was wrong. “Jag är hemma.”

” Wilkommen zuhause,” he replied back in his native German. They’d gotten into the habit just a few weeks after they were partnered, as she was most comfortable in Swedish and he in German, and they understood each other just fine. Besides, it was comforting to say that she was home, and to have someone reply that she was welcome. Especially after the kind of day she’d had…

“Did you pick up something to…eat?” she asked, walking in and seeing him turn in his wheelie chair, looking pointedly at the pizza box on the table.

“Where were you?” he asked simply.

“Um…”

“And why is your hand bandaged? Poorly, might I add.”

“Stein…”

He sighed, holding his hand out, a sure sign that he wanted her to slap her injury into his palm so he could inspect it like the lowkey worrier he was. Marie chewed her lip for a moment before he looked at her with that impossibly green gaze.

“Marie,” he said, and this time, he used the Meister voice. The one she couldn’t help but want to obey. So she crossed the room in a few strides, sheepishly holding out her hand, and he tenderly undid the gauze to look at her wound.

“These are scrapes commonly found when one punches something,” he informed her, as she well knew. “Or,” he said, looking at her knowingly, “someone.”

“He was being a jerk!” she huffed.

“Who was it this time?” he asked, reaching out with one hand to grab some ointment and gauze that was already put aside. He clearly had some sort of suspicion that she must have just proven to him. As…usually. This was a commonplace event for them, really.

“Some…Kris dude,” she said, and Stein stood up, nudging his chair over to her so she could sit as he poured some antiseptic onto a cotton pad, dabbing at her scraped knuckles, making her hiss.

He blew on the wound, which eased the sting, slightly, before he slathered some cream on it. “For the same motive as always, I presume?”

“You do an awful lot of presuming,” she remarked, and his lips quirked up.

“You do an awful lot of dodging the question.”

“Okay, okay! Yes!” she said, all but throwing one arm up. “But it _bothers_ me, alright?”

He said nothing for a moment, the amusement he’d had on his face previously being wiped clean. “It is affecting you negatively.”

“Of course their comments do-“

“I’m regarding the consequences of your actions. Simply allow them to speak freely,” he said, slowly and meticulously bandaging her hand up, and she looked at him, sadly.

“Why would I ever do that?” she asked, but he didn’t reply, so she furrowed her brows. “Stein…look at me?”

“Hm?” he hummed, eyes still focused on her wound.

“Frank.”

At that, he looked up. No one else called him that, save for Marie. Spirit was never close enough, never really wanted to be, and everyone simply knew him by his last name. It felt almost…intimate that she would call him by his first. But not unwelcome.

“Yes?”

“I’m not going to sit by and let them call you things that aren’t true.”

He felt a pang, somewhere. “They’re not particularly lying,” he said, shutting down and settling into a cold freeze-out of his emotions. “I’m insane.”

“So what?” she asked. “We’re all a little crazy.”

“Clinically.”

“That doesn’t make you dangerous.”

“It makes them true. And yes, by all accounts, it does.”

“Okay, so you’re dangerous,” she relented. “But that’s because you’re _strong._ Not because you’re a menace. And especially not to me.”

“Yet,” he muttered.

“Stop that. You’ve taken more hits for me in fights than anything else! If you wanted to hurt me, Franken Stein, you would have done it already.”

“That’s-“

“Listen to me,” she said, poking her finger against his chest, right where his heart was. “I may not be a genius, but I’m still pretty smart, alright? And I know that in here,” she tapped at his chest a bit more, “you don’t want to hurt me. So I won’t let anyone hurt you, either. _Ever_.”

He looked at her in confusion. He never did understand Marie. Her gentle, worrying nature, nor her warrior-like ferocity. It was as though she was in a constant state of both stability and permanent unsettlement, both Absolute Zero and Absolute Hot at the same time. Kelvin, of course.

She was a puzzle he couldn’t solve. Something about her. . .her soul, perhaps. Her very being. Her nature…

He was curious about her, always. But, as usual, he chose not to dwell on it, too long. Her soul was warm and welcoming, and he felt as though he could forget his worries. For the time being, he only finished wrapping her bandage, still keeping his gaze locked on hers. “Well, actually, in there is only a series of aortas and ventricles that-“ he started to joke, interrupted by her giggle.

She let her good hand drop. “Stop being a _nerd_ ,” she spoke, affectionately. “You know what I mean.”

He wanted to tell her that he didn’t. He didn’t understand, as many often put it, matters of the heart. For him, a heart was merely a muscle, pumping blood into his body. Emotions, which people often referred to as being central to the heart, was truly centered in the brain. Particularly in the amygdala, located, naturally, in the hippocampus.

Not anywhere near where she’d indicated. And he was no less in tune to that part of his anatomy than the first she’d referenced.

But, perhaps Marie would teach him, yet. He thought he was rather well versed in anatomy, but he wouldn’t be surprised if she could school him.

But she was already up and out of the chair he’d allowed her to sit in, pulling at his sleeve for him to join her in eating cold pizza.

Speaking of hearts, however, perhaps he should look into tests concerning a potential murmur.

It only took place when around her, but one could truly never be too safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Day three: DONE! Prompt: Warrior/Worrier. <3


End file.
